When we traversed through the city to go to the city hall, I noticed that the city’s air was heavy. This could be seen from the desolate street and townsfolk’s gloom look. There were even hundreds of skinny homeless people here and there.

Intrigued by that, I enquired Lillie, “Lillie, does this city always have this kind of atmosphere?”

“Atmosphere?” Something then clicked in her mind and she swiftly denied with a shake of her head, “Ah... N-no… the people are always happy and never shown a dark-look on their faces.” So, it must have been caused by bad management. Well, no matter, I should just go to the city hall for now.

Before long, a big and majestic white colored building met my eyes. It had a wide white stair with pillars that supported the building and two big statues decorating the entrance. Even though there seemed to be no one securing the place, there were a dozen invisible robots. Without further ado, we went inside, and I could see Brown was chatting with a group of officials. From the looks of their faces, it was obvious that they had been convinced by Brown to submit.

Noticing my arrival, Brown immediately approached us and bowed. “Milord, all the officials have agreed to submit.”

“Great. I’m pleased with your work. Oh… and have all the officials to meet me here.”

“Yes!” Brown agreed with a nod before going back to the group of officials.

After getting known that I was the new lord, all the dozen or so officials swiftly went towards me and bowed. ““I, greeted myself to lord!””

“Uh-huh. I accept your allegiance. So, who’s among you is the city magistrate?”

Hearing what I just said, all the officials looked at each other in confusion. However, one of the elderly officials stepped forward and answered, “Milord, the City Magistrate Charlie isn’t here. He went with Andrei to go on a campaign.” Huh? Charlie? I think I heard that from ATHENA’s report.

“Okay, could you tell me the total population of the Brightmoon’s territory and the total gold available?”

“Yes! The Brightmoon territory had 1 small city and 10 big villages. Right now, the Brightmoon City had a population of around 20,000 and the 10 villages had a population of 1,000 each. Summarizing it up, there should be around 35,000 or so people if we include the rest of the smaller settlement, milord.”

“Wait, you don’t have an accurate amount of population in the fief?”

“Unfortunately, no milord, we don’t have enough funds and personnel to keep up on checking the population." The elderly official downcast his eyes in shame. This… Well, counting the population with medieval age technology is indeed hard.

“Milord, as for the total amount of gold. There are only about 100 gold coins left…” No wonder…

“For now, notified the other villages of this news and buy food to distribute them to the people. Try to reconstruct the industry and…”

Now that I think about it, I could have the robots do the construction and change this city to be a techno-city. No, no, no… that will be dangerous. Guess, the only thing that I can do right now is…

“…have all the homeless people and the one that wants a better future to gather on the outskirts of the city tomorrow morning. I’ve got a better place for them to settle to."

“Yes, milord!” He bowed, then inquired curiously, “Milord must be a Magus, correct? May I know lord’s title?”

Title? Did every Magus have a title? I must come up with one and fast. Umm… Techno Lord? Nah… too weird. Golem Lord? Too cringy. I’m an explorer that came from space… Ah... This could work…

“Just call me Cosmic Lord,” I said while starting to regret the moment it left my mouth.

The elderly official went silent for a moment and made me nervous, but he swiftly blurted out, “Cosmic Lord? A lord of Cosmic… That’s a great title! Milord must be someone powerful.” He bowed with even more respect than before.

“Y-yes… you could say it like that… Ahem. Anyway, you will be in charge of the city hall in the meantime and do my order.”

“Yes!” replied the elderly official with enthusiasm. Swiftly he began working with the other officials to do my command.

Next, I stared at Brown that had been holding himself from speaking. "What is it, Brown?”

"Young Lord… Someone is being kept in prison and I want milord to meet him."

“Just tell me where he’s and I’ll get the golems to bring him here.” With that said, I recalled Lillie's request.

“Yes!”

A few minutes later, a group of maids came to the city hall while being led by a group of robots. They had an uncertain fearful expression, worried about where they were being led to.

“Big sis Tia!” Lillie suddenly exclaimed and approached a black-haired woman wearing a maid uniform which had a sharp gaze and cold demeanor.

The woman was stunned upon seeing Lillie. “Little miss… How come you’re here?”

“Victor saved Lillie.” Lillie pointed her finger at me with a cheerful smile. Ah… Lillie… are you trying to destroy my image?

“Victor? A man? Little miss! He didn’t do anything weird to you, did he?” The maid named Tia gazed at me with disgust. Seriously? Why all the older women in this world had that kind of look like I was some kind of a pedophile?

“Something weird?” Lillie tilted her head innocently, seemingly not understood what she meant by that.

“Insolent! Tia, you have been working for the Brightmoon family for decades as the head maid… Cannot you see who the new lord is?” Brown rebuked with a dark look.

“I…” She swallowed her surprise, quickly bowed to me professionally. “Please excuse my rudeness just now, milord.” For some reason, she was giving an aura of an office woman wearing glasses.

“I accept your apology. Just don’t repeat your mistakes.”

Unexpectedly, another group of robots came while bringing a badly wounded middle-aged man. The man was burly and muscled, he also had a scar on his cheek that made him a bit savage-looking. Despite all the injuries on his body, an undying aura of ferocity was displayed on his eyes while he stared at me.

“Gareth! That bastard Andrei had done a horrible thing to you… My new lord here, have defeated him and saved you. It would be a great help for you to swear allegiance.”

“Hmph! I won’t change my allegiance to someone else!” The man named Gareth snorted and refused.

“I won’t force you to swear allegiance to me, but in exchange that you’d never went against me in the future.” Awed by his loyalty, I gave a concession.

“Sir Gareth… Would you help Lillie?” said Lillie with a pitiful look.

“Milady? You’re safe?” Stunned by Lillie’s safety, his voice shook and he started to become uncertain. Guess, time for a push.

“If you swear allegiance to me, it wouldn’t change your loyalty.” It’s true though, he was loyal to Lillie’s father so it still not changed the fact of that.

“Hmph. If sir want my loyalty, you should show your sincerity and not cover your face behind that mask," said Gareth bluntly without caring to show any politeness.

Hmm… this helmet had been very inconvenient so far in this kind of situation. Later, I’d have to fix this. With that in mind, I removed my helmet and my face was revealed. And as always, all the people in the city hall — except Brown and Lillie — were surprised.

“Well, as expected of a Magus. But for milord to reach a Magus stage at such a young age. Milord must be a genius." The elderly official commented on the side. Hmm? A Magus will stay young if they reach the Magus Stage at such a young age? I gonna remember that.

“Then, I’ll swear my allegiance to sir.” Gareth moved his battered body and kneeled to me like a knight. “I, Gareth zo Silversword, greeted myself to lord!”

"Yes, I accept your allegiance." Although already being used to this world's custom, I was still a bit awkward when seeing him so serious.

Next, I took out a vial of advanced nanobot and handed it to him. “Now then, take this and have yourself rest to heal your injuries.”

“Yes, milord!”

After taking care of all matters, Lillie and I went back to the spaceship. There were still many things that needed to be taken care of, so Brown didn’t follow us. Upon thinking of how much I had gained in this occupation, a smile subconsciously cropped up in my mouth.

A city and 10 villages with a total population of 35,000 people. Won’t that make me a strong lord? A far cry from my goal, but it's progressing steadily.

Yet why am I feeling that I forgetting something? Ah… the Razel Dukedom, I need to do something about them swiftly. Must go back to my universe and buy advanced weaponry… but how could I bypass those pirates?

As I was pacing back and forth in contemplation, a brilliant idea sprung up in my brain. Oh yeah, I can use the carcass of the invisible beetles to make the ship invisible completely from radar. With that, I’ll also be able to exact my revenge on them.

“Eek! Victor, why are you grinning like that? It scares Lillie.” Lillie looked at me with concern.

“Ah, it’s nothing… let’s have lunch.”

“Yay~”